Bob Filner: “I represent the southern part of the City of San Diego where we had thousands of evacuees, hundreds of homes lost, a…”

“I represent the southern part of the City of San Diego where we had thousands of evacuees, hundreds of homes lost, a really terrifying situation for many people. Of course, getting back on their feet will be a major, major challenge. But what we saw, as we have heard from my colleagues, is cooperation, cooperation from all levels of government, from the cities, the fire districts, county, State, Federal, and also international, which no one has mentioned up to this point. I watched as 60 firefighters, bomberos as we call them, from Tijuana, in Mexico, came to help and were a part of the team as we fought the Harris fire in southern San Diego. I think that was a very important contribution. I had the opportunity to talk to the President as we flew to the fires. He understood that he needed to be visible very early, which was very hopeful, and that FEMA had to be proactive and not just reactive. The blue shirts of FEMA were on the job and visible everywhere, and their local assistance centers were set up very much earlier than in any previous disaster, I think. And that gave hope to many people. Those assistance centers, again, before even many of the evacuees had been allowed to return home were there and helping people. We saw the hope on people's faces as they saw this cooperation in getting help from everywhere. And although they face a very difficult time, they do have hope.”